Uttam Tambar moved from India to the United States when he was four years old.  He received his A.B. degree from Harvard University in 2000 and his Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology in 2006 with Professor Brian Stoltz.  After he completed his NIH Postdoctoral Fellowship at Columbia University with Professor James Leighton in 2009, he began his independent research career at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas.  He is currently the Bonnie Bell Harding Professor in Biochemistry, Chair of Organic Chemistry Graduate Program, and Director of Diversity for Biochemistry. The Tambar laboratory is interested in asymmetric catalysis, natural product synthesis, and medicinal chemistry. They have developed a new approach to the stereoselective functionalization of hydrocarbons that leverages catalyst-controlled pericyclic reactions.